35. Damn, she can still taste cigarettes. Not that it was anything she didn't expect. It's a smell that she's always unconsciously associated with him. A small squeak escapes her throat as her feet slip from the guardrail, but he doesn't let her fall. He holds her against him, one arm curled around her waist and his other hand resting against the back of her head, trailing down her brunette hair, sliding over her neck and ear before coming to rest over her flushed cheek.
She pulls away, covering her mouth with her hand. Her face is burning, and it won't stop. Not with the way he's looking at her. Smiling at her. And the way that smile reaches his eyes, instead of leaving them cold and impassive. It takes a couple-make that twenty-rapid heartbeats before she grins back and kisses him again. This one doesn't last long, barely two seconds, and he sets her slowly back on the sidewalk. The storm of moths and butterflies in her stomach calms down, but her racing heart barely slows. She can't even feel the cold anymore with how warm she feels, yet she still crosses her arms in front of her chest as though she's freezing.
He leans down and kisses her forehead. "See you tomorrow, then?"
"Yes." She nods. "After work?"
"Yeah."
Swallowing the bundle of nerves caught in her throat, she steps around him to head inside her apartment. After waving goodbye, she takes the elevator up to her floor, tries her door, and finds it unlocked. Izaya's sitting at his desk again, a little too close to the window for comfort. A flash of irritation automatically runs through her mind and she growls, "I suppose you saw that."
Her roommate looks up from his computer, "Saw what now?" And he looks and sounds so bewildered, she's positive he has no idea what she's talking about. Her face breaks into a huge smile and she's so happy she runs across the room and hugs the informant. Izaya goes rigid under her grip, for once too shocked to say anything. Mai lets him go before he can recover. Then she dances over to hug Namie, too, who's exiting the kitchen. The older woman recovers enough to pat her shoulder with a gentleness that surprises Mai.
She pulls away and retreats down the narrow hallway to her small room in the back. The door is shut, the lock clicks, and the light is left off. She tosses her bag in the corner and curls up on her bed, trembling in excitement.
-0-0-0-
Author's Notes:
Ghost Hunt is owned by Fuyumi Ono and Shiho Inada.
Durarara! is owned by Ryohgo Narita, Suzuhito Yasuda, and Akiyo Satorigi.